Saturday, December 5, 2015

The Mad Historian's Athenaeum, Vol. 1, No. 23

Having
studied the works of Paulo Freire for a few years in my doctoral studies, I
always wanted to read Pedagogy of the
Oppressed at one point. I finally made time and am not disappointed. Freire
made his point quite clearly and I can see where his pedagogical ideas arise
from. It helps that I understand the context of Freire’s work because otherwise
this book is very likely to be seen as a Marxist educational tract. The
language is that of revolution, but not of the violent sort. Instead, Freire
took pains to stress that the revolution was that of the mind alone through
pedagogy. He referred to this as a dialogical revolution, not a violent one.

Understanding
the history of this book and Paulo Freire is required in order to properly
interpret the contents. Freire was an educator in Brazil in the 1960s who
worked with illiterate peasants. He developed a way to teach the peasants how
to read in a phenomenally short time. The problem with that was Freire also
taught them to question their place in the world. The military dictatorship
running Brazil could not allow its subjects to question its authority. No
totalitarian state can allow that. It lets the peasants begin to reject the
rule by the elites.

As a
result, Freire was imprisoned. Later, he was exiled whereupon he set out to
transform the lower classes through education. Brazil’s mistake was the world’s
benefit though. Freire would work on his theories and write many books. This
book was the first of several and it had a major impact on the world of
education. Today, Freire is seen as the Godfather of Critical Pedagogy. His
work influences educational theorists. Action research methods are often found
to draw many of their ideas from Freire. For all of these people, it begins
with the reading of Pedagogy of the
Oppressed.

What is
somewhat controversial today is how Freire wrote about the Cuban Revolution in
this book. Bear in mind he wrote it in 1973 and this was before a lot of the
information about the failures of Castro’s regime had become widely known. His
point of view was without a doubt biased as he wrote from the perspective of
someone who would have supported Castro had he been in Cuba in the 1950s. Most
of what Freire quotes from the revolution deals with the way Castro’s
revolutionaries merged with the peasants of Cuba until both were the same. That
was instrumental in the success of the Revolution. So Freire points this out
and the process by which it occurred.

While some
are willing to label Freire a Marxist for this view, the point must be made
that historically speaking, this was exactly how successful revolutions were
able to survive and grow in a hostile climate. It was through a dialogue that
the relationship between the two groups grew. Had Castro used coercion to force
support from the peasants his revolution would have failed. That he would
install a repressive regime lacking many of the freedoms he promised to the
peasants is noted by Freire. Indeed, Freire points out that this is not a true
revolution when this occurs as the oppressor has simply been replaced by
another oppressor.

This is a
pretty important point to note. There is no way the book could have been used
as the pedagogical guide that it is if Freire had advocated violent
insurrection and totalitarian government. Keep in mind that he wrote this book
for people living in Latin America, not the United States. This is also where
people have incorrect perspectives. It is also why the book was well received
by people in Latin America, most of whom were living under repressive
totalitarian governments. Freire was speaking directly to them, the people for
whom education was denied. He saw education as one of the pivotal means of
creating the ability for the people to revolt against the oppressors.

The
language used in the book is clearly Marxist in nature, but it is simplistic in
identifying who the players are in the system of oppression. Again, he was
speaking to people who had low levels of education. He kept it simple so they
could understand and apply the concepts to their own lives. Remember, Freire
found a way to teach adult peasants how to read in a month. He understood who
he was teaching on a level beyond most people. Reading Pedagogy from that perspective really is the best possible way to
begin interpreting it. The book itself is a education cornerstone. Freire
followed it up with more books, but this one is the base he would build his
philosophy of Critical Pedagogy upon. It is clearly worth five stars as one of
the seminal educational texts of all time.